No fewer than five persons were allegedly killed by some suspected herdsmen on a farm located at Ajegunle-Powerline community in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The victims, who are labourers in the community, TheNigerian Metro learnt, were said to be working on the farm when the assailants struck and shot them. The victims were said to be natives from Plateau and Kaduna states.
A farmer in the community, Akin Olowolafe, who narrated the incident on Thursday, told our correspondent that the incident occurred at about around 3 pm on Tuesday, while the deceased were working on the farm. According to him, prior to the incident, the herdsmen often destroyed their crops whenever they grazed and they had reported their activities to the government and security agencies without any response.
“These Fulani herdsmen just entered the farmlands on Tuesday as we were working and they started shooting sporadically into the air and killed five people during the attacks.”
He added that the incident was one of the many attacks of the herdsmen, calling on the state governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, to rescue them from attacks, which he said, happen daily.
An eyewitness, who is also a colleague of the deceased, Fidelis Daniel, confirmed to our correspondent in confidence that the alleged killer herdsmen stormed the farm at about 3pm on Tuesday to destroy their farms after they (labourers) had warned them not to come to their farmlands again.
He said, “When they came, they started shooting and killed five of our people. I was inside the farm too when the incident happened. I just heard the sound of guns, and I immediately ran to the house. It was even God who saved me too because they would have killed me. They suddenly came with weapons to destroy our crops and killed five people. The people are from Plateau State and two from Kaduna State.”
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, confirmed the incident to TheNigerian Metro, on Thursday, but said efforts were ongoing to arrest the perpetrators.
“There was an attack on the community, and police are still investigating. But I cannot confirm the number of people who were killed,” the PPRO confirmed.
